The evening's first panel, Conception is moderated by John Markoff and features Daniel Kottke, Larry Tesler, Rod Holt, Jerry Manock, Marc LeBrun, and Bill Fernandez.

The second Panel, The Birth of the Mac, is moderated by Steven Levy, and will feature Bill Atkinson, Randy Wigginton, Andy Hertzfeld, Bruce Horn, and George Crow and Caroline Rose. The audience will be able to hear first-hand stories from these panelists and others about the real stories behind the birth of the Macintosh.

The third panel, the Coming of Age of Mac, is moderated by Dan Farber and features well known 3rd party developers like Charlie Jackson, Jim Rea, Heidi Roizen, Ty Roberts, David Bunnell, Marc Canter, Maryline Delbourg Delphis, Adam Hertz and Steve Jasik focusing on the software necessary for the Mac to gain critical mass.

Cupertino, CA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mac@30th Celebration to Gather the Who’s Who Behind the Apple Macintosh Computer at Gala Evening on January 25

Event to help fund the next generation of technologists, young coders of the future through Coderdojo.com

Creative team behind iconic “1984” Apple commercial to be at event

Cupertino, Calif. – January 16, 2014 -- The original Mac development team who envisioned and built the first Apple Macintosh personal computer will headline the Mac30th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate the computer’s historic 1984 launch. The gala event will gather the Who’s Who – inventors, technologists, media and venture capitalists -- behind one of the most successful technology innovations.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh on January 24, 1984 at Flint Center in Cupertino, California. Mac30th will be held at the same location.

“The Mac made the computer accessible to the average consumer and so opened the floodgates for a new generation of technology innovations,” said Daniel Kottke, one of the original Macintosh developers. Small, affordable and easy to use, it ushered in a new era of information technology and global cultural change brought forth by technology. He said, “At the time, few outside the industry understood its wide-ranging implications; today, it's easy to look back and see the many ways this ‘insanely great’ little machine has transformed our world.”

The celebration honors the men and women who created the Macintosh. Nearly all of the original development team -- including many of those whose signatures appear inside the case of the first production run -- will be on hand for a series of conversations about the computer’s evolution from idea to product. Some will be on stage to reminisce about those early days and share an unprecedented collection of stories, photos and videos documenting the events that led to the release of that first Macintosh.

Kottke will co-host a panel with John Markoff of The New York Times and revisit the conception of the Macintosh and offer a rare glimpse into the seminal years -- including the push to define features and concepts and the emergence of the original development team.

Wired Magazine’s Steven Levy takes a second panel through the technical obstacles that the team encountered as they developed innovative combinations of software and hardware and contended with short deadlines to meet shipping dates.

Dan Farber of CNET will host a third panel to talk about the Mac’s coming of age, featuring early third-party developers recalling the innovative applications they created to serve a new platform and match the power of a new machine.

The world also got the first glimpse of the Macintosh through the iconic “1984” TV ad. Steve Hayden, who headed the creative team, will talk about the original concept and the process of creation of the ad with Jobs.

Event producers have assembled privately-held videos and stills documenting the events and personalities of those days, some of which have never been publicly screened.

Profits from Mac@30 will be donated to CoderDojo (www.coderdojo.com), an organization which helps youngsters develop the skills they need to write tomorrow’s software and envision future technology.

Organizers have designed a colorful mosaic poster to commemorate the event. It features a picture of the first Mac, with headshots of the original team tiled across its display. The public is invited, at no charge, to submit their own photos to make up the rest of the image. Anecdotes and testimonials about individual experiences with the Macintosh are also welcome at the site. Information and image and text uploads are available at http://www.macintosh30th.com/posters/.

Mac aficionados are traveling from across the country and from as far away as Poland, South Africa, Spain, Canada and Australia for a chance to hear from the people who ushered in the era of modern computing -- and to be part of the Macintosh’s ongoing history.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Doors open at 6:00 and the event begins at 7PM and runs until 10:30. Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/Flint-Center-tickets-Cupertino/venue/229530

Follow this event on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mac.thirtieth?fref=ts

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Commemorative Mosaic Poster

The commemorative mosaic poster portrays the original Macintosh using portraits of the people who brought it to life - not only its creators, but its many users.
We think this colorful 11x17 poster is a fitting memento of the 30th birthday celebration, and we’d like you to be part of it.
It costs you nothing. Simply click the SUBMIT button to upload your photo.

Headshots are preferred. You’ll have a chance to crop your image, and there’s a place to tell your story about how the Macintosh changed your life.

If you’d like to lend financial support to the Mac@30 project, check out our Kickstarter campaign. If you contribute at Reward 3 or above - that’s only $20, folks - we’ll put your image at the top of the pile and do our very best to make sure you see yourself on the poster.

The event and the poster are a benefit for CoderDojo (www.coderdojo.com), a not-for-profit outfit dedicated to helping new generations of kids learn the skills necessary to create the next breakthrough in computer technology. Any money we receive beyond productions costs goes directly to them.

So let’s see those photos and hear those stories!

Profits from the event will be donated to charities dedicated to promoting computer and Internet literacy.

For further information, including interviews, contact Daniel or Robbie at mac30th@gmail.com.

Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/Flint-Center-tickets-Cupertino/venue/229530

On the Web: http://www.mac30th.com/

Follow this event on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mac.thirtieth?fref=ts

MACINTOSH’s 30th Anniversary Jan 25, 2014 Flint Center 6:00 pm Doors 7:00 pm Show